A fourth-year junior, Polk certainly warranted inclusion on the conference squad given that he ran for 1,341 yards, scored 15 touchdowns (11 rushing, 2 receiving) and ran for 100 or more yards in nine of Washington’s (7-5-0) 12 games, pushing his career total of 100-yard rushing games to 20.

Polk, who has yet to announce whether he will enter the NFL draft in April or return to Washington, becomes just the second Husky named to the all-conference first team in the past six years, joining linebacker Mason Foster, selected last year.

Washington almost had as many first-team all-conference players following their 2000 Rose Bowl season — five — than it has had since then — seven. Or, to look at it another way, during the time Don James coached the Huskies (1975-92), he had 64 first-team all-conference players, an average of 3.55 per season.

Since 2000, the second year of the Rick Neuheisel regime, the drain of high-caliber players at Washington has been remarkable and unrelenting compared to previous decades. James and successor Jim Lambright (1993-98), for example, combined to coach 43 first-team All-Pac-10 players in the decade of the 1990s. Neuheisel (1999-02), Keith Gilberton (2003-04), Tyrone Willingham (2005-08) and Sarkisian (2009-present), coached just 12 in the 2000s.

The following graphic shows the number of first-team all-conference and All-America selections Washington has over the past four decades. It also shows the number of NFL draft choices by decade, as well as No. 1 picks by decade. It’s not only a sorry testimony to talent slippage, it explains in just four lines why the Huskies have fallen so far behind programs such as Oregon’s.

Decade

Coach

All-Conf.

All-America

NFL Picks

NFL No. 1s

1960s

Jim Owens

29

31

35

1

1970s

Owens, D. James

28

33

37

1

1980s

Don James

28

47

59

5

1990s

James. J. Lambright

43

28

52

6

2000s

4 Coaches

12

6

23

3

Sarkisian has yet to close the talent gap much on the Ducks, especially, but it speaks well of him and his staff that he has the Huskies headed to their second consecutive bowl game (which one, we’ll find out Sunday).

For Husky fans, it’s even more encouraging that he started to infuse the program with players such as Seferian-Jenkins, a true freshman, and Kasen Williams, another true freshman.

Seferian-Jenkins, who has 36 receptions for 479 yards, already is tied for fourth on the list of career touchdown receptions by a UW tight end with six, and was Washington’s most effective receiver in five games. Last season, all Huskies tight ends combined to catch six passes.

Williams, who made that astounding hurdle of Washington State’s Nolan Washington in the Apple Cup, has been Washington’s best receiver over the past month.

Both Seferian-Jenkins and Williams, the 2010 national Player of the Year by Parade magazine, both possess the talent to become first-team All-Pac-12 choices. All Sarkisian and his staff need to do now is unearth several more like them, each year, as James routinely did.

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Kirsten Kendrick's Q. & A. with Thiel can be heard every Friday during Morning Edition at 5:35am and 7:35am and again that same day on All Things Considered at 4:45pm. It also airs Saturday at 6:35am and 9:35am.